July 20 (UPI) — Tulsa-based Cherokee Nation Red Wing has received a $16.3 million contract with the U.S. Army for the production of armor kits to protect soldiers from explosively formed penetrators.
Work locations and the funding schedule will be determined on an order-by-order basis — with a projected completion date of July 2019. The contract was awarded under small disadvantaged business guidelines.
Explosively formed penetrators, also referred to as explosively formed projectiles, are an advanced form of improvised explosive device that saw extensive use by Iraqi insurgents against U.S. forces.
They use shaped charge explosives to form and launch a molten copper alloy slug at extremely high speeds to penetrate armor. The devices were originally developed for the oil industry for perforating metal pipes and their surrounding rock formations, but were later adapted as a weapon system in World War II.
EFPs are used in various weapons systems around the world but did not gain significant notoriety until their use by Iranian-backed insurgents during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
American intelligence agents say Iran transferred the technology from its domestic oil industry in kit form to Hezbollah, who then passed them on to insurgents in Iraq. They proved to be one of the most lethal improvised explosive devices of the war, due to their armor penetration at ranges of up to a hundred yards using command detonation or motion sensors.
EFP armor kits are a form of reactive armor mounted on the sides vehicles that use several layers of ceramic and metallic alloys. The plates break up the slug on impact and disperse its energy to prevent penetration at the cost of much greater vehicle weight and expense.
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